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But HC might know, is this really an Island beer or is it knocked out of a shed in East London and sold to sucker haolis like me?

Kona is part of the InBev global beer empire. They are the #1 enemy of all real independent breweries.

They have recently started buying craft breweries (like Kona and many others) to confuse consumers who don't know what is a real independent craft beer versus what is a mass produced pseudo-craft beer. If that was all they did, I wouldn't care, but they also use their significant wealth to influence politicians into passing laws that directly benefit them and make it much harder for real craft breweries to stay afloat, and since they are able to make their pseudo-craft beer so much cheaper in such high volumes they are intentionally pushing real craft beers off of taps around the country when a bar owner can buy their garbage for much cheaper than a real craft beer. Furthermore, they own Budweiser and other brands that continue to market themselves as "American" beer when they are not even an American company, which makes their "America" labels during the summertime pure nonsense.

Long story short, even thought Kona beers are still solid (if not great), I refuse to buy anything InBev is involved with, because they are actively trying to put independent small craft beer breweries out of business. If a brewery sells out to them, educated craft beer drinkers will immediately shun them forever.

Originally Posted by TonkaToys

Apparently the last one is ranked #7 best beer in the world by some magazine or other. Shame it was at the end really; best 'til last is fine unless you are half-cut by the time you get there.

Anything AleSmith brews is fantastic. Haven't had that one in particular.

Kona is part of the InBev global beer empire. They are the #1 enemy of all real independent breweries.

They have recently started buying craft breweries (like Kona and many others) to confuse consumers who don't know what is a real independent craft beer versus what is a mass produced pseudo-craft beer. If that was all they did, I wouldn't care, but they also use their significant wealth to influence politicians into passing laws that directly benefit them and make it much harder for real craft breweries to stay afloat, and since they are able to make their pseudo-craft beer so much cheaper in such high volumes they are intentionally pushing real craft beers off of taps around the country when a bar owner can buy their garbage for much cheaper than a real craft beer. Furthermore, they own Budweiser and other brands that continue to market themselves as "American" beer when they are not even an American company, which makes their "America" labels during the summertime pure nonsense.

Long story short, even thought Kona beers are still solid (if not great), I refuse to buy anything InBev is involved with, because they are actively trying to put independent small craft beer breweries out of business. If a brewery sells out to them, educated craft beer drinkers will immediately shun them forever.

Not sure if it's more or less insidious, but not everything that InBev picks up is being turned into mass-produced, cheap, pseudo-craft beer. Some of it doesn't change at all, and it's hard to know who is and isn't now owned by InBev. They've picked up a handful of NW breweries. 10 Barrel out of Bend, OR. Elysium in Seattle, etc. The beers haven't changed, so anyone who doesn't keep an eye on these things wouldn't know anything is different.

Tough one for me, as I avoid buying anything InBev has a hand in, but 10 Barrel brews the only Sours commonly available in stores. They aren't true sours imo, obviously they use the new faster methods. But it's good beer and one of my preferred styles. Occasionally Oakshire, a local brewery puts out seasonal Berliner Weisse that directly compete. Unfortunately it's rare and honestly not as good. The wife's favorite beer by far is Elysium's Jasmine Ale. So, for us to avoid InBev now means we stop drinking the beers we enjoy. Which is more or less what's happening. I probably drank less beer in the last year than in any year since I was 19 or so. The NW is the land of IPAs, IIPAs, IIIPAs, and my tastes have been leaning more towards Sour, Saison, Kolsch, and this time of year Browns and Porters. I enjoy drinking a variety of beers, and unfortunately, in this part of the world anyway, the multitude of craft breweries and tap houses have done pretty well in killing off variety and boring beer drinkers like me by turning into "which IPA do you want?". 24 taps and 18 are some sort of IPA. When I find a Sour on the menu, more often than not anymore, it's sold for $5 for a 4oz glass. 4oz? That's not a drink.

Who knows, maybe the corporate devouring of the craft industry, along with large portions of the craft breweries getting less and less willing to experiment and take chances and just pushing IPAs because people buy IPAs is helping to drive the resurgence of Whiskeys, craft cocktails, etc. It's certainly pushed me that direction. Though, Whiskey has similar pitfalls, with a great many american whiskeys coming from 1 massive wholesale source, then being labelled with misleading stories that make it sound like they come from little craft distilleries with some sort of lengthy and fascinating history.

My problem, and the reason I will never buy an InBev product, is their business practices. If a company won't sell to them, they sue until they are forced to. They know these small indy breweries cannot lawyer up to the level of InBev. It's not right.

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